Flat Plate slab design using Section cut in SAP2000

How can I design a reinforced concrete flat plate in SAP2000?

Expanded Question: When I model slabs (or shell elements) using FEM software, the usual
output is the contour plots on the shells which are not very useful for designing. Is there any way
I can design a plate element (for example a flat plate) using FEM program?

Answer: For a number of years what I have been observing is that most of the time the design
reports include contour plots for the shell elements for different load combinations. These
contour plots a not useful to have a quick insight on the analysis results. Hence presenting the
contour plots in the design reports is not a good practice.

A way out is to use section cut techniques which are available in most of the FEM packages.
We can defined the section cuts according to the strips defined in the ACI 318 code. The output
for the strips shall be the more familiar bending moment and shear force diagram plotted along
the length of the strips. An extra advantage of the diagrams will be that a diagrams (bending
moment, shear force and axial force) for different load combinations can be drawn on one plot
simultaneously, hence easy to determine the governing load combinations.

Note:- FEM package like SAFE has built in features similar to section cut, that’s why you get
analysis results for strips.

Example

Consider a reinforced concrete flat plate rested over 3m high columns. The structure consists of
two bays in x-direction and two bays in y-direction. The bay width in x and y-directions is 5m.
The slab thickness is 175mm. The column size is 500mm square. The slab is loaded by self
weight of the slab and live load of 5 KN/m2. Design the flat plate using section cut techniques in
SAP2000. (Since the flat plate is symmetrical in two directions, one needs to define section cuts
in one direction and for half the slab)

Explanation

The slab can be divided into column strips and middle strips, according to the ACI-318 code.
Since the flate plate is symmetrical in two directions, one needs to define strips in one direction
and for half the slab. Hence two column strips and one middle strip is marked on the figure 1.
Now the section cuts are to be defined to capture the total force (Shear force, bending moment
and axial force) in the width of the strip. For this purpose, 5 section cuts are to be defined in
each span for each strip (10 section cuts per strip). The section cuts are numbered in the figure
1. One can use the option

Draw -> Section cut.

But the output is not saved for future use, if this option is used.

There is another way to define section cuts using

Define -> Section cuts

75 5000 5000 75
0 0

50 50
0 0
75

+57
0

200

50
0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1
+37
CS 0
1
250

50
5000

450
9 1
M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
0

0
S1
+12 y
250

50
CS
x
0

2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1
0
-

450
125 - - - - - +2 +13 +25 +36 +47
5000

0
0 475 362 250 137 25 50 75 00 25 50
0 5 0 5 0

50 50
0 0
75
0

Figure 1: Example reinforced flat plate with the section cuts marked for column strips and
middle strip.

By using the Define -> section cut option the output for the forces on the section can be recalled
and processed later on.

The section cut has to be defined using Quadrilateral cutting plan. It is preferable that the cutting
plane be kept slightly away from the nodes, because sometimes SAP2000 is unable to process
the output for the section cuts exactly at the nodes, and report a zero values.
Figure 3 shows the data for section cut definition for column strip 1 for section cut #1. Note that
the slab is at elevation 3m in z-direction. Therefore the cutting pane is defined such that the slab
is cut by the plane.

Figure 2: Define section cut dialogue box

Figure 3: Section cut definition for column strip section cut #1

Similarly 10 section cuts are defined for each strip.

The output for the section cuts can be called for all the load cases and combinations and
processed.

Using the menu Display -> Show Tables -> Structure Oputput -> Other Output Items -> Section
Cut Forces Analysis, the section cut forces can be displayed

Figure 4: Section cut forces display

Figure : 5 Section cut forces

The section cut forces can be exported to Excel by using Export current table -> To Excel option

In Excel the forces diagram for the strips can easily be drawing for any load combination by little
processing of data. For this example M22 gives the bending moment about y-axis, and F33
gives the shear force along the length of strip. The outputs for the three strips are given in
Figures below
 COLUMN STRIP CS1
40
BENDING MOMENT IN X-DIRECTION [KN/m

20

0
-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6

-20

-40

-60

-80
X-CORRDINATE [m]
 COLUMN STRIP CS1
150
SHEAR FORCE IN X-DIRECTION [KN/m

100

50

0
-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6

-50

-100

-150
X-CORRDINATE [m]

Figure 6: Bending Moment and shear force diagram for Column strip CS1
 COLUMN STRIP CS2
100
BENDING MOMENT IN X-DIRECTION [KN/m

50

0
-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6

-50

-100

-150

-200
X-CORRDINATE [m]
 COLUMN STRIP CS1
250
200
SHEAR FORCE IN X-DIRECTION [KN/m

150
100
50
0
-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6
-50
-100
-150
-200
-250
X-CORRDINATE [m]

Figure 7: Bending Moment and shear force diagram for Column strip CS2
 MIDDLESTRIP MS1
30
BENDING MOMENT IN X-DIRECTION [KN/m

20

10

0
-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6
-10

-20

-30

-40
X-CORRDINATE [m]
 COLUMN STRIP CS1
50
40
SHEAR FORCE IN X-DIRECTION [KN/m

30
20
10
0
-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
X-CORRDINATE [m]

Figure 8: Bending Moment and shear force diagram for Column strip MS1